He Without Sin
by hamedhayati
Summary: The story of a regular Soldier in the army of the dead.


He Without Sin

Written by: Hamed Hayati

Once upon a time in the north beyond the wall, there lived a wildling. A simple man, not much of a fighter and with no concern for much but his wife and daughter. He was never one for acts of heroism nor had he ever done a thing that could be called heroic. He was just an ordinary man trying to make it in the mountains and if one day he decided to leave those mountains, no one would realize that he had left and the world wouldn't miss him. Nevertheless, he was a proud man; as the free folk always are. At best he could be considered as a family man. He had promised himself never to let his wife and daughter miss a meal and working as an innkeeper, he made a moderate salary so he could keep that promise. But life beyond the wall was rough. The wildlings were almost out of supplies and their constant fighting amongst each other wasn't doing them any favors, these would result in the destruction of food storages, and the cold was also reluctant to give up on them. A change of scenery would have definitely helped them get to more supplies and improve their living conditions. So they had to figure out a way north of the wall. This task had become much harder now that they had lost the Battle of Castle Black. The wildlings took part in the battle mostly because of the injustice that was inflicted upon them for so many years by the authorities over the wall. They believed that they were wrongfully cast out and they had the right to live in the lands on the other side of the wall every bit as the people there. These matters bored the innkeeper. His only goal for getting to the other side was to be able to properly feed his family. But Being the innkeeper, he always had to listen to people talking about that matter. An inn is like a church and the innkeeper its priest, the customers would come in and sit on their knees confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness. They knew they were forgiven when the holy drink was poured into their cups. They could also ask the innkeeper about the confusing matters of existence. The questions were always the same: "Father, they have taken our lands and cast us out of our homes. Where is that divine justice you speak of?" And the priest's reply was always the same: "you can't give a fuck about justice on an empty stomach; have another beer".

It was getting colder and colder confirming the truth of the rumors that winter was near. The land was milky white with a hint of blue. The day and nights were windy, but not of the comfortable breezy kind. It was a stormy weather that made it hard to walk from place to place. There was mist as far as the eye could see, which wasn't more than ten feet and the mountains were covered with snow. The wildlings were working hard, now more than ever, to provide for themselves but that didn't seem enough. They were like camels sinking into the quicksand of snow. Whatever they did they couldn't prepare enough supplies and it seemed unlikely that they would survive this winter. Even more so now that they had realized that the army of the dead would soon march upon them. They didn't have enough men and armor to fight them off. Soon they were all going to become soldiers for the night king. First he and his army would kill the wildlings and the he would turn them all into soldiers for himself. Every man, woman, child, giant and every other living creature.

Winter came to the lands beyond the wall and so did Jon Snow. He had come to convince the wildlings to join forces with the army on the other side of the wall. He made a big speech about how the two sides should work together if they wanted to have a chance against the white walkers. The innkeeper couldn't care less about what the lord commander was saying. His only hope was that the wildlings would accept the offer. He knew that they were stubborn and it was hard to make them go along with such a request. It wasn't until Jon Snow showed them a weapon that could destroy the white walkers that they accepted the alliance. So they started preparing for the journey across the wall. There were many ships waiting for them. The innkeeper had gone to get his family in order to leave the ice-covered land. It was at this time that the people heard a sound close to that of Israfel's trumpet. Everyone was scared. The children screaming from hearing the earsplitting sound. The men and women took up arms and got ready for fighting. Then the night king on his dead horse, surrounded by skeletons, appeared in the distance. He was standing exactly in the middle, splitting his army into two sides which made him look like the angel of death with each side being his wings. It seemed that his right wing extended to the east and his left to the west of the world. He pointed his right hand to the wildlings and the army on his right side marched toward them. Most of the wildlings had already set off for Castle Black and the rest were getting on the ships. But there were still some of them in the city trying to make it out including the innkeeper and his family. They started running towards the ships. On the way a skeleton got to them. The innkeeper took out his dagger to fight him. They fought for a while and he managed to cut off the skeleton's hand. The other soldiers saw this and came running for the innkeeper. They were more than a dozen. He couldn't fight them all being the incompetent swordsman that he was. So the soldiers threw him on the ground and started biting off parts of his body. At this moment all he could think about was the safety of his family. He hoped that they had reached the ships. On the other hand he was concerned that if he was gone, no one would take care of his wife and daughter. A sad feeling arose in him. It started devouring him from the inside as the skeletons were ripping him apart from the outside. He had failed to keep his promise. Like everything else in his life, he had left yet another one of his tasks half done. By and by his feelings drained out of him until there was nothing else. And he couldn't feel anything anymore. He was on the ground motionless with little skin left on his bones. He couldn't see or hear anything, but the world still went on.

Suddenly the innkeeper opened his eyes. He could hardly see. He was trying to recall what had happened to him. He remembered the skeletons ripping of his skin as though it was a piece of clothe he was wearing. He then reached to touch his body to see how much skin was there on it that his hand caught his eyes. All he could see were conjoined bones. He touched his face only to find that it was nothing but a skull. There was no flesh on him, the only part of his body that had remained intact was his eyes. It was then that he realized he was turned to a soldier for the army of the dead by the Night King. He decided to go home to his shack but he remembered that his wife and daughter probably wouldn't be there. He thought to himself there was nothing that he wouldn't give to spend one night with his family again. He started walking toward his shack. The dragging of the bones of his feet on the icy ground made a rattling sound; like a rock slowly rolling away. In his way he had to step over all the dead bodies, most of them he knew from back in the inn.

Arriving at his house, he opened the door and went inside. The shack looked messy, he remembered the look on his wife's face when they heard the sound of the White Walkers. He had let her down, he had let himself down. He looked at the crib that his infant daughter used to sleep in. A strange sadness filled his eyes. He started a fire at the fireplace to warm himself and then sat on his chair facing it. He kept thinking about how he could never see his wife or hold his baby girl again. His mind running, he heard a rattling sound from the other room getting closer. He got up and looked back. It was another bag of bones entering the room with a baby skeleton in its hands. The innkeeper looked at its face, their eyes met and he realized that the bag of bones was his wife. He knew those eyes anywhere. He became both sad and happy. Sad because like him his family was dead and happy because they were all together once again. He rushed towards her for a kiss but he realized that neither of them had the equipment to perform such an action so they settled for taking each others' hands. The wife poured drinks into two cups and gave one to the innkeeper and kept one for herself. She sat beside him and started to drink. Since they didn't have any bodily organs they couldn't taste the wine and after they poured the drink into their mouths, it would go straight from within their bones and make a splashing sound on the ground but he didn't care that he was wetting the floor or that he couldn't taste the wine, he just wanted to enjoy the mere pleasure of sitting down with his family again. He thought to himself if you could be alive and die every day-which was the case for most wildlings- then you could be dead and live too. Later on, in the dead of the night he heard the sound of the White Walkers calling him to the battlefield. He thought they were not going to let him live, not even in death.


End file.
